Two plead guilty in ECI conspiracy

A girlfriend of a former Eastern Correctional Institution inmate pleaded guilty Jan. 5 to conspiring to smuggle contraband into the facility.

The plea is the first of 2017 in the 80-member indictment handed down by a federal grand jury in September 2016.

Cammay Gray, 31, of Los Angeles, California, entered her guilty plea in the U.S. District Court of Maryland in Baltimore to conspiracy to commit racketeering. Gray was the girlfriend of 36-year-old ECI inmate Samuel Johnson, who federal prosecutors say was housed in the Western compound of the prison from 2012 until 2016.

Marty Imes, 35, also pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy on Jan. 6, according to court records. Imes, who is serving 15 years in prison for attempted second-degree murder, was accused of selling drugs in the Eastern compound. His plea agreement was not readily available on Friday and no sentencing date has been set.

According to her plea agreement, Gray managed the books for Johnson who used his position working in the barber shop to distribute tobacco, synthetic marijuana, Suboxone strips and cell phones among inmates. Johnson was trying to work with fellow inmate Michael Page, 35, to amass $20,000 from distributing drugs on the inside, federal court records show.

Johnson was serving 25 years in prison for a 2003 attempted first-degree murder conviction out of Kent County, while Page was serving four years on a drug distribution charge out of Calvert County.

Federal investigators said they learned through wiretaps that Gray would handle the money for Johnson, as well as send messages to his nephew, 23-year-old Terrell King of Chestertown. King would meet up with multiple correctional officers, including Rachelle Hankerson, to drop off contraband to be smuggled inside the facility, according to court documents.

Hankerson pleaded guilty in November 2016 to conspiring to have an inmate stabbed and racketeering. Johnson has been moved to Chesapeake Detention Facility in Baltimore while Page is currently being held at Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland.

Gray is scheduled to be sentenced on May 25. She faces up to 20 years in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The ECI smuggling scandal includes 80 members and was announced in October 2016 by the Office of the U.S. Attorney in Maryland. Eighteen correctional officers are accused of smuggling in cellphones, tobacco, drugs and pornographic DVDs for inmates of various gang affiliations to sell on the inside of the medium-security prison. ECI has been in operation in Westover since 1987.